Clock is ticking away. This is time in Larnaka

In the Middle East when someone says 'boukrah' [literally 'tomorrow'] they don't mean it. They mean 'soon'. When someone asks me when I will be home I usually say 'I won't be long…' meaning… well those who know me know the answer is rather too Middle Eastern for their liking!

But as I sit here writing my missives to the world, the question which has perplexed me for years remains... will I ever belong?

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Monday, August 22, 2005

Double it and move up to the next unit of measure

Today I spent the whole day creating a support administration system for all of our partners. We have made attempts at this in the past, but in order to cope we have decided that support has to change to a more structured approach.

Sometimes we have been overwhelmed with requests for assistance, more than 50% are usually not our problem and in some weeks almost all the 'fault reports' are nothing to do with us. However, every time we get a message saying 'there's a problem here' we have to check whether or not there really is a problem.

This in itself wastes time, particuarly when we are in the middle of something else and have to stop doing that to check out if there is a problem. Having structured approach lets us separate the support from us individually and prioritize according to our priorities rather than responding to other people's priorities.

What this means that any of our partners can either go to a webpage and complete a form describing the problem or send an email to a designated address. If they use the form then they will get either an email or SMS message in response, so they know that we have received the form and are dealing with it.

This project was one of three I want to complete this week and I had been concerned that it would take more than half the week so that I might not actually get to the other things that need doing this week.

This is particuarly in light of a rule of thumb in writing computer programs 'estimate how long it will take, double it and move up to the next unit of measure'. This means if you estimate it will take 2 days, it's likely to take 4 weeks! So its very pleasant and unusual to complete a computer programming task in less time that I would expect.

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About me

I'm one of those strange media guys who during the first gulf war when the CNN reporters were stuck in Baghdad were wishing I was there with them. I guess there's no hope for me, I'm a sold out media person! I joined the BBC straight from school at age 18 and have been doing different media projects ever since. That's my love, my passion. When the aim is to communicate the truth about God then the passion is multiplied. So, here I am...